 | The Poems of Sir William Watson |  |
THE TRUE IMPERIALISM
Here, while the tide of conquest rolls
Against the distant golden shore,
The starved and stunted human souls
Are with us more and more.
Against the distant golden shore,
The starved and stunted human souls
Are with us more and more.
99
Vain is your Science, vain your Art,
Your triumphs and your glories vain,
To feed the hunger of their heart
And famine of their brain.
Your triumphs and your glories vain,
To feed the hunger of their heart
And famine of their brain.
Your savage deserts howling near,
Your wastes of ignorance, vice, and shame—
Is there no room for victories here,
No field for deeds of fame?
Your wastes of ignorance, vice, and shame—
Is there no room for victories here,
No field for deeds of fame?
Arise and conquer while ye can
The foe that in your midst resides,
And build within the mind of Man
The Empire that abides.
The foe that in your midst resides,
And build within the mind of Man
The Empire that abides.
1900
| The Poems of Sir William Watson | |